An overhead traveling carriage (hereinafter referred to as “carriage”) has hitherto been known which is provided with a hoist and which runs along a track installed above a floor surface. The carriage is composed of a running section that allows the carriage to run along the track and an article supporting section in which the article is housed.
Such a carriage houses an article inside using a chuck mechanism provided in the hoist to support and raise a handle formed at the top of the article. The housed state of the article ends once the hoist has moved the chuck mechanism, supporting the article, up to the highest position. Then, in this state, the carriage starts to transfer the article.
In recent years, it has been desirable to increase the speed of a carriage that transfers wafers. However, when an attempt is made to cause the carriage to run at high speed, an article housed in the carriage may be oscillated around a chuck installed at the tip of a traction wire in a hoist. If the transferred article is a cassette that houses a large number of wafers, or the like and thus cannot sufficiently endure vibration, it is adversely affected by impact caused by oscillation as described previously.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide an overhead travelling carriage with a hoist which suppresses transmission of vibration to an article during transfer.